The effect of adsorbate coverage, adsorption sequence and temperature on the structure, composition and reactivity of coadsorbed layers, produced by dissociative adsorption of O 2 and H 2 at 200 K on a Rh(100) surface, has been studied by combined TPD, XPS and LEED measurements. The emphasis is on the impact of the structure and composition of the mixed O + H layers on the synthesis of hydroxyl and water as a result of the O + H surface reaction. The difference in the O 1s binding energies of adsorbed O (529.9 eV) and OH species (530.8 eV) was used as a fingerprint to monitor the formation of the OH species. The H 2 O TPD spectra show substantial variations of the desorption temperature range and the amount of water evolved with coadsorbate coverage and structure: from 270 to 350 K and from 0 to 0.08 ML, respectively. It has been found that dense O + H adlayers, where the O coverage is in the range 0.25-0.4 ML, favor the formation of stable OH species. The maximum amount of stable hydroxyl OH species (∼0.16 ML) can be produced by heating of these dense adlayers to ∼260 K. This results in reordering of the adspecies to form a new O + OH - (2 6) structure, where hydroxyls react readily to evolve 0.08 ML of water in a sharp desorption peak at ∼280 K. The effect of the adlayer density and restructuring on the production of OH and H 2 O is discussed.